Uzumaki Uchiha Jackson and the Lightning Thief
by bluejay1234
Summary: Naruto,Sasuke and Percy are best friends and also happen to be very powerful demigods. Now what are these three up to and what will be the consequences?   Pairing: NarutoXSileana, SasukeXThalia, and PercyXAnnabeth.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson, but I do own this story.**

**Hey everyone!**

**I just got this idea from an amazing story I read called Naruto Prince of the Underworld written by Uzumaki Crossover who also happens to be my beta reader for this story. A big thank uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! To him.**

**Please read, enjoy and review.**

**Prologue**

"I just have this feeling that we have to send them to this school, Fugaku." Mikoto said as she paced in front of him while he sat in the couch.

"What's so special about Yancy Academy?" Fugaku asked.

"I don't know, it's just a feeling," she muttered," and you know that when I get a feeling, it's always something related to 'them'."

"Yeah. Do you want me to call the boys?"

"Yes, I think we need to talk to them about this."

Fugaku left to go call his step-sons, Naruto and Sasuke. He had married Mikoto five years ago. She'd moved in with him and his son, Itachi along with her son Sasuke and her adopted son, Naruto. They lived in a large mansion in Brooklyn, New York. Fugaku was the CEO of a multinational company. He'd bumped into Mikoto when he'd gone shopping for some groceries.

He knocked on Sasuke's door and turned the knob when he heard a "come in".

Sasuke was lying on his sofa reading a book. He sat up and put his book aside when he his dad in the doorway.

"Hey, dad." he said.

"Hey, Sasuke. Your mom wants to talk to you. She's in the living room."

"Okay, thanks" he said before walking out of his room.

Fugaku knocked on the door across the hall and heard a loud "come in!"

Naruto was the exact opposite of Sasuke. He was sitting on the floor in front of the television playing on his Wii. He paused the game and looked up, his face lighting up into a foxy grin and he said, "Yo, dad! What's up?"

"Hey, Naruto. Your mom wants to talk with you in the living room."

"Okay, dad. Thanks!" he said before switching off his Wii and running out of his room.

Fugaku sighed before walking back to the living room slowly. It was at times like this that he missed his elder son, Itachi who was currently at college. He walked into the room to see Sasuke sitting across from Mikoto and Naruto was standing right next to her.

"Please, sit down. We have something to tell you two." Mikoto began.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"We are going to send you to a boarding school called Yancy Academy."

"Oh. Okay." Sasuke said in a bored voice.

"What? What do you mean by 'Okay', Sasuke? It's a boarding school meaning we have to stay there!" He informed Sasuke wondering why his brother wasn't reacting at all. He even emphasized his point by flailing his arms around in the air.

"Sit down, Naruto." Mikoto sighed, "We thought it would help both of your dyslexia and ADHD problems."

"Hmmm." Naruto pouted and crossed his arms.

"I can read just fine," he said, "but I can't help it if the classes are boring."

"Oh, really. This is coming from the person who got suspended from school for placing a thumbtack in the principal's chair as a prank and on top of that you skipped English for it." Mikoto said putting on a stern face.

"Listen to your mother, young man." Fugaku added in his no nonsense voice.

"Ah, whatever."

Naruto said rolling his eyes.

"School starts next month." Mikoto said.

**First Day of School:**

Naruto and Sasuke got out of their car and grabbed their bags from the trunk. Sasuke was dressed in blue jeans with a black t-shirt. He had a silver chain dangling from his belt loop and a red jacket on top of his shirt. Black Reeboks completed his attire. Naruto on the other hand had black jeans on with an orange t-shirt with a blue jacket on top. He had a pair of glasses pushed up into his hair and white shoes finished his attire.

They walked to their dorm and found out that they had four people in each room. Naruto walked into their room startling a thin guy who had curly hair on which rested a green Rasta cap. He looked a bit too old to be in the 6th grade as he had a goatee along with what looked like a big acne problem.

"Hi, I'm Naruto", he introduced himself, "and that's my brother, Sasuke"

"Hi, I'm Grover" the guy answered in a nervous voice.

He was staring at both of them with wide eyes as if he'd seen a blond guy with blue eyes and a black haired guy with black eyes for the first time in his life.

That's when their last roommate walked in and if it was possible, Grover's eyes widened even more. The guy had black hair and sea green eyes.

"Hey man, so these are our roommates." Naruto said glancing mischievously at Sasuke who just rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever."

"Um…Hi, I'm Percy Jackson and you are?" The new boy introduced himself.

He got three very different responses back- a hyperactive "Naruto!" a bored "Sasuke" and a nervous "Grover".

"Cool" He grinned before closing the door and dropping his bag on the closest bed. "Maybe, this year will be fun."

"You bet!" Naruto yelled.

"Hn. Dobe, shut up." Sasuke muttered.

Please Review people!

I'll update as soon as I can and I'll try to make the chapters longer.

So until next time:

Adios Amigos!


	2. Chapter 2: MRS DODDS GETS VAPORISED!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

Hi everyone!

I'm back with another chapter!

Thanks a lot Uzumaki Crossover, jessy, Gordaime and Leo de Cielo for your reviews.

1 MRS. DODDS GETS VAPORISED!

It was a stormy day in the middle of May [which is kind of weird weather] and our sixth-grade class was taking a field trip to Manhattan twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I know it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

Currently, I was trying to ignore Nancy Bobofit, the kleptomaniac, read headed girl who was sitting in the back seat and hitting one of my best friends, Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.  
>My two other best friends and dorm mates as a matter of fact were brothers who were complete opposites of each other. Sasuke was dark headed guy with black eyes and a light, muscular build. he was 'Mr. Always Cool', meaning nothing seems to faze him. While the rest of us were always trying to cram stuff to write in the exams, he always passed with top marks without seeming to read anything. The weird thing though was that he was diagnosed with the same problems i.e. dyslexia and ADHD, like the rest of us excluding Grover. All the girls seemed to run around following his brother, Naruto and him. Naruto was the sunny, easy-go-lucky type with a really big sense of humour. I can't tell you how many times I was caught in one of his pranks. He had blond hair and cerulean blue eyes which always shone with mischief or laughter. In short, that guy was a blond ball of energy.<p>

Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in Grover's curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. He didn't seem to realise that all the pranks going on at school were Naruto's doing.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

I looked at the seat in front of me when Naruto turned back and winked at me. Oh, I knew that wink, ofcourse. It meant, Nancy Bobofit was going to get pranked in the near future. I relaxed and sat back in my seat and flashed Naruto a smile.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides.

I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured Naruto, Sasuke and I were devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at one of us and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew that one of us was going to get after-school detention for a month.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"  
>It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.<p>

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and "

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," Sasuke corrected me.

"And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters "

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.

" and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover, Naruto and Sasuke all chorused.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

Naruto, Sasuke, Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson and both the "

I knew that was coming. We told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.

"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told us.

"About the Titans?" Naruto asked.

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson, Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha"

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed so hard. Judging from the looks on Naruto's and Sasuke's faces, they felt the same. I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected us to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that we have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C in my life. None of us had except for Sasuke. No he didn't expect us to be as good; he expected us to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

We mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. He told us to go outside and eat my lunch.

The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

We sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others.

Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner."

" I just wish he'd lay off us sometimes. I mean we're not geniuses." Naruto muttered.

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give us some deep philosophical comment to make us feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?" I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. Besides, I had my friends to help me get through the school year for the first time in my life.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. She turned to Naruto and Sasuke with a flirtaceous smile which looked more like a grimace to me and said, "Hey, Sasuke and Naruto. What Are you guys doing hanging out with these losers?" I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.

I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!" Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see "

" the water "

" like it grabbed her "

I didn't know what they were talking about but Naruto and Sasuke were giving me the same amazed look. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on us. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if we'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey "

"I know," I grumbled, not seeing Naruto and Sasuke's warning look. "A month erasing workbooks." That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Come with me,all three of you," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."  
>We stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for us. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.<br>She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.

"But "

"You will stay here."

Grover looked at us desperately.

"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."

"Yeah man, thanks," Sasuke added.

"Boys," Mrs. Dodds barked at us."Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there.

She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at us to come on. We stared at each other. How'd she get there so fast?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. I wasn't so sure.  
>We went after Mrs. Dodds.<p>

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between us and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. We exchanged looks again before walking into the building.

Okay, I thought. She's going to make us buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.

But apparently that wasn't the plan.

We followed her deeper into the museum. When we finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. She looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You three have been giving us problems, boys," she said.

Sasuke said, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt us.

Naruto said, "We'll we'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

"We are not fools, boys," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy Naruto had been selling out of our dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized that we all got the essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away our grade. Or worse, they were going to make us read the book.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..." Sasuke started.

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.  
>Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. We stared at the both of them wide eyed as shouted, "What ho, Percy!", and tossed the pen through the air.<p>

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.  
>My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.<p>

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at us. Naruto and Sasuke dove to the side and me being the one with the sword in my hand...I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.  
>The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching us.<p>

We were alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. Had I imagined the whole thing?

But then I saw Naruto and Sasuke on the floor with pale faces. They stared at me and then Sasuke broke the silence. "What just happened?"

"No clue." Naruto answered.

"I think our math teacher just turned into a monster and then I vaporised her." I said in a dis-believing tone.

We went back outside still dazed after the weird experience.

It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw us, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butts."

We said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. Sasuke asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away.  
>Naruto asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.<p>

He said, "Who?"

But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at us, so I thought he was messing with us.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.  
>We went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, young men."<p>

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at us blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." Naruto said looking at Mr. Brunner intently.

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Boys, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you boys feeling all right?"

I frowned as we walked away from Mr. Brunner. It looked like the whole school was playing a trick on us. I looked at Sasuke and Naruto who had the same puzzled looks on their faces.

had to be real, right?

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	3. Chapter 3: THE FATES CUT A STRING

Hello everyone. Thanks for all the reviews so far. Sorry, I couldn't update sooner.

Please read and enjoy and review after.

:)

Sasuke Pov:

It had been a few months since they had faced Mrs. Dodds. Most of the school still acted like there was nothing new with the fact that someone called Mrs. Kerr had replaced their previous pre-algebra teacher who had turned out to be a monster.

Percy, Naruto and I had quizzed Grover multiple times just to make sure that this weird 24/7 hallucination that everyone seemed to be going through hadn't affected Grover too. But he seemed adamant to convince us that he was under the hallucination but all three of us could hear the false note in his voice and the slight hesitation before answering that usually meant that he was lying. But why would someone want to believe that he was hallucinating?

Percy started springing the Mrs. Dodds reference on someone every once in a while but everyone just stared at him like he was a psycho. Things got so drastic that I almost started believing everyone else that there was no Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy"almost" being the keyword- but I couldn't believe it since Percy and Naruto were sporting the same fact. Though, Naruto loved to prank he had to take this issue very seriously.

The freak weather continued, one night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

Though I had all this on my mind and nightmares of Mrs. Dodds which woke me up in the morning, I tried to keep my grades up. This wasn't the case with Percy and Naruto though-their grades fell from Ds to Fs.

Percy finally snapped in English at Mr. Nicoll, when he asked him for the millionth time why he was too lazy to study for spelling tests and called him an old sot. The headmaster sent his mother a letter informing her that he was not welcome in Yancy the next year.

Naruto and I decided immediately after this that we would change schools as well. Hey what were good friends for?

As exam week got closer we holed our selves up in the dorm room and tried to memorise all the subjects. Well at least I tried to, naruto and Percy studied for the Latin exam only.

I strongly suspected that this was due to Mr. Brunner's request that we find the answer to his question on how Greek mythology affected us in daily life.

The evening before the Latin exam I was going through all the names again. 'Chiron is the name of the famous centaur who thought Hercules and other heroes. His name is commonly confused with that of Charon who is responsible for ferrying dead souls into Hades. He is…'

That's when the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology went flying across the room and hit the opposite wall. Percy got up off his bed and huffed. "How are you supposed to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon? God, this is so confusing that the words are revolving around my head." he groaned.

"Chill, dude." Naruto called from the bed next to mine. Grover had gone out a few minutes ago saying that he needed a snack from the cafeteria to get rid of his nerves.

I turned to Percy and said, "Well, Chiron is a centaur and Charon is…"

"Please, Sasuke!" Naruto and Percy both groaned.

"I'm going to Mr. Brunner and asking him for help. Coming, Sasuke?" he asked.

"No, I'm fine thanks" I replied coldly completely miffed that they hadn't heard me out with my explanation.

"I'll come!" my brother said cheerfully before bouncing of his bed and walking outside along with Perce.

Around five minutes after they left, Grover came back with a packet of Doritos in his hands. He lay down on his bed and munched them happily. He looked like he wanted to eat the packet too but I think he thought better of it as he burped and took out his notes to study.

Just then Naruto and Percy walked in with grim looks on their faces.

"Hi, guys" Grover said.

I raised an eyebrow at my brother who looked unusually down and asked silently what was wrong. Contrary to belief that we were polar opposites, Naruto and I had a lot of things in common and we understood each other perfectly.

He shook his head and directed his head towards the door. While Percy went to sit on his bed and talk to Grover half-heartedly I followed Naruto out the door and down the corridor before talking.

"What's up?" I asked.

"We just heard Grover talking about us with Mr. Brunner. Percy is really upset that Grover talking about us behind our backs." Naruto said all this very fast in an agitated whisper.

"Whoa, slow down! Start from the beginning" I said.

And so he told me…

**Flashback Naruto POV)**

We were three steps from the door handle when we heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a

question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said_"... _worried about them, sir."

I froze. I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about his roommates to an adult.

We inched closer. "... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the _school! Now_ that we know for sure, and _they _know too Percy looked frozen.

"We would only make matters worse by rushing them," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boys to mature

more."

"But they may not have time. The summer solstice deadline—_"_

"Will have to be resolved without them, Grover. Let them enjoy their ignorance while they still can."

"Sir, they all _saw _her..."

"Their imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince them of that."

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that

Would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now

let's just worry about keeping Percy, Naruto and Sasuke alive until next fall—"

The mythology book dropped out of Percy's hand and hit the floor with a thud.

Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and we backed down the hall.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller

than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

I opened the nearest door and we slipped inside.

A few seconds later I heard a slow _clop-clop-clop, _like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an

animal snuffling right outside the door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.

Percy and I glanced at each other.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right

since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

We waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and gave the 'all clear' to Percy before we made our way back up to the dorm.

**End Flashback**

"Hmm, that sounds really weird. Why would they need to keep us alive till next fall? What is this summer solstice deadline? 'Her' meaning Mrs. Dodds, right?" I asked Naruto.

My brother nodded. He could be very smart if he wanted to be which normally wasn't the case.

The next afternoon as Naruto, Percy and I were walking out of the exam together when Mr. Brunner called Percy back inside. Being his best friends we both followed as well.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."

His tone was kind, but I was sure the words still embarrassed him. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at him and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

He mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

Percy looked incredibly sad.

'Way to burst his bubble, Mr. Brunner' I thought.

Here was our favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling Percy he couldn't handle it. After saying he

believed in him all year, now he was telling him that he was destined to get kicked out.

"Right," he said, trembling.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy.

That's nothing to be—"

"Thanks," he blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.

"Percy—"

But he was already gone.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. I looked up when I finished and saw the rest doing the same.

I asked Percy what he'd be doing this summer and he told me that he would be going back to the city.

He also told us that he'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend his free time worrying about where he'd go to school in the fall.

"Oh,"Naruto said." You could visit us Percy and we'll ask our mom to search for schools and contact your mom. What do you say?"

"Nice idea" he replied.

I smiled at him and then said "You know that we're coming to your house now don't you?"

He looked shocked before smiling widely and saying, "Awesome!"

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd

booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as we all had, so there we were, together again,

heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other

passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he

expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased.

But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. I exchanged glances with Percy and Naruto, they'd noticed as well.

Finally Percy couldn't stand it anymore.

He said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

He confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much _did _you hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you guys, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."

"Grover—"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no

such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." I stated.

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out three grubby business cards. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something

like:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800)009-0009

"What's Half Naruto started to ask when,

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."

"Okay," Percy said glumly. "So, like, if we want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?" Percy asked and it sounded really harsh.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect

you guys."

I stared at him.

All year long, we'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. We'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without us. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended_ us._

"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting us from?"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole

bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of

the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have

to get off. Grover, Naruto, Percy and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our

side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across

four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice_._ There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted

one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of

electric-blue yarn. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at us.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face.

His nose was twitching. We all stared at him.

"Grover?" Naruto said. "Hey, man—"

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" Percy joked but clearly Grover did not find this funny.

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I

heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"What?" Percy said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Come on! He pried open the door and climbed inside, but we stayed back. Somehow, I had the feeling that no matter what we did, we were meant to see what happened next.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching us. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could

hear that _snip _across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me

wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment.

The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Naruto, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much,

much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." I informed him.

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't.

It was something else, something almost—older.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" But even as Percy said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like

the last time."

"What last time?"

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to us, but we all promised him that he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" Naruto asked.

No answer.

"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" Percy asked.

He looked at each of us in turn mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers we'd like best on our coffins.

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